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{{trope}}
{{quote|'''Calvin:''' "If you could have anything in the world right now, what would it be? Anything at all! Whatever you want!"
'''Hobbes:''' "A sandwich."
'''Calvin:''' "A sandwich?!? What kind of stupid wish is ''that?!'' Talk about a failure of imagination! ''I'd'' ask for a trillion billion dollars, my own space shuttle, and a private continent!"
''([[Gilligan Cut]] to kitchen)''
'''Hobbes:''' ''[eating a sandwich]'' "I got ''my'' wish."
|''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]''}}
With a puff of smoke, Alice the Genie appears! Solemnly, she tells Bob that because of his tireless efforts in browsing
Bob, after a moment's thought, wishes for a bag of potato chips.
Typically appears in stories featuring magic ([[Clarke's Third Law|or a similar substitute]]), but can also appear in non-magical situations, like an Emperor offering an open-ended reward to a hero or a conversation between friends.
This trope is closely related to [[Wasteful Wishing]], but differs in intent -- [[Wasteful Wishing]] is when a request is mundane because the wisher was being frivolous or made a mistake. A
Related to [[Be Careful What You Wish For]]. Also see [[Mundane Utility]] and [[Misapplied Phlebotinum]].
{{examples|Examples: }}▼
== [[Anime]]
* [[Played With]] in ''[[
* In ''[[Puella Magi Madoka Magica]]'', it turns out that {{spoiler|First-Timeline!Madoka}}'s wish was to save a random kitty that got run over.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* [[Deal
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* When offered a wish by [[Ah! My Goddess|a representative of the Goddess Relief Office]], [[Tenchi Muyo!|Mihoshi Kiramitsu]] wishes for someone to help her and displacees like her in ''[[My Apartment Manager is not an Isekai Character]]'' understand what's going on. This results in Heaven and Hell jointly creating the setting's residence/manager system.
== [[Film]] ==
* In [[Bedazzled (2000 film)|the 2000 remake of ''
{{quote|
** In [[Bedazzled (1967 film)|the 1967 original]], it's a Frobisher & Gleason raspberry-flavored ice lolly, gotten the same way. {{spoiler|later, when Stanley is in a fix and can't wish his way out, the Devil points out that the ice lolly counted as one of the seven wishes he's now used up. To rub it in, he pays Stanley back the sixpence, telling him "Now we're even!"}}
* A very un-politically correct joke Rocco tells in ''[[The Boondock Saints]]'' has three men (Black, Hispanic and White) each granted one wish; the black man and the hispanic man each wish for their fellow blacks and hispanics to be back in their home countries and not in America, and when the white guy realizes that this means there are no more blacks or hispanics in America, he happily just asks for a coke.
* A non-magical version appears in ''[[Sneakers]]''. The team has been confronted by a group of armed NSA agents who want The Box, and is making demands in exchange for turning it over.
{{quote|
'''Bishop:''' "Carl... Excuse us." ''[Takes him aside]'' "This is the brass ring. You gotta think bigger thoughts."
'''Carl:''' "I just want her telephone number." }}
** He gets it.
* ''In the Beginning'', the [[Prequel]]
== [[Literature]] ==
* ''[[Discworld]]'':
** From ''[[
** It's a running joke in the City Watch books that, at the very end, whatever else the Watch may or may not be granted from Vetinari, a new dartboard is always on the list.
** In ''[[
* Used in ''[[The Dresden Files|Small Favor]]'', when Harry Dresden calls in the favor owed to him by the Summer Court of Faerie - and asks for a doughnut. {{spoiler|The point is, however, is ''whom'' he asks that of, namely, the [[Implacable Man]] [[Mage Killer]] after his head, and ''when''--namely, a few seconds before said killer rips him to shreds and a few minutes until the bounty on Harry officially expires.}}
** It's revealed in the next book that this little maneuver has made Harry famous among the fey.
* There's an old Arab tale about a man who got a wish from a genie in a bottle. He only asks that his net never come up empty of fish. He gets his wish and does well for the rest of his life.
* In one of Caroline B. Cooney's ''The Vampire's Promise'' books, the titular vampire has gifted a high school student named Devnee with beauty and brains by draining the energy out of the classmates she wished she could have the qualities of. The climax of the book comes when Devnee, intending to stop the vampire before he can force her to let him feed on another girl, learns to her horror that her mother has found him and made a wish of her
* In [[The Bible]], God offers Solomon a free wish. Solomon asks for wisdom. God is impressed.▼
== [[Live
* In a [[What Could Have Been]] draft of an episode of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', Buffy would have been granted one wish of phenomenal cosmic power. After debating heavily the whole episode on how to use it, she would walk in with a brand new pair of shoes, prompting Willow to lampshade this trope before the big reveal: She actually used the wish to bring Tara back to life.
* ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' The Original Series episode "The Man in the Bottle". The couples' first wish (out of four) is to have a pane of glass in their shop repaired, in order to [[God Test|test the genie's power]] first. The couple then proceed [[Wasteful Wishing|to waste their remaining wishes]], but in the end console themselves with the thought that at least the glass got repaired. Guess what happens next.
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** In the show proper there was another sketch where one of the younger monsters (don't remember which) found a genie's lamp and wasted all the wishes on having the genie go back into the lamp and pop out again, despite the genie's insistence for a better wish.
* In ''[[The X-Files]]'' episode "Je Souhaite", Mulder encounters a genie who was originally a medieval French peasant who encountered another genie and made her take his place after her third wish of "great power and a long life". Her first two wishes were a stout mule and a magic bag full of turnips. After noticing Mulder's "What the hell?" facial expression, the woman once again points out she was a medieval French peasant.
* In one episode of ''[[I
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
* In a Sunday strip of ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'', Calvin asks Hobbes what he'd wish for; Hobbes says he wants a sandwich. Calvin doesn't understand why and wishes for enormous wealth. Hobbes gets his wish, and Calvin obviously does not.
** Another strip had Calvin ask a similar question, to which Hobbes replies that he'd wish for "a big sunny field to lie in." Calvin is aghast at how mundane this is, but then observes Hobbes sleeping in the grass. "Actually, it's hard to argue with someone who looks so happy."
* A ''Frumpy The Clown'' comic had the eponymous sarcastic clown and a kid encounter a wizard who claimed he could give them whatever would "make [their lives] complete." Frumpy immediately wishes for the first [[ABBA]] album on vinyl and a watermelon. While the kid complains that he could have wished bigger, [[Genre Savvy|Frumpy quips that he doesn't trust midgets with wands]].
== [[Oral Tradition]], [[Folklore]], Myths and Legends ==
▲* In [[The Bible]], God offers Solomon a free wish. Solomon asks for wisdom. God is impressed.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* After having been turned into an ottsel in the beginning of ''[[Jak and Daxter The Precursor Legacy]]'', Daxter gets his chance to turn back into a humanoid in the ending for ''[[Jak 3
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* Done in [http://xkcd.com/152/ this] ''[[
* Parodied by ''[[The Perry Bible Fellowship]]'' [http://www.pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF210-Wishing_Well.gif here].
* One character suggests "infinite soda supply" as a use for Nancy in ''[[Ow
* In ''Puppy Kitten Grand Aventure'' the title characters are granted one wish each by a genie. Puppy's wish? [https://web.archive.org/web/20180112113351/http://puppykittengrandadventure.smackjeeves.com/comics/446748/indosarnian-nights-page-17/ Fruit salad.]
== [[Web Original]] ==
* One of the ''[[Rooster Teeth Shorts]]'' has [http://roosterteeth.com/archive/?id=1712 Geoff catch a magic fish that grants him three wishes]{{Dead link}}. His first is for two milkshakes, one of which he spills. His second is to unspill his spilled milkshake. His last is {{spoiler|to wish it wasn't against the rules to eat a magical fish sandwich.}}
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* In the ''[[
* In the animated ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'' series, Eden actually ''refuses'' to grant her master's first wish for a sandwich (fortunately, lacking the words "I wish" in front of it) and instead talks her into wishing never to go hungry again.
* In ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]''{{'}} second [[Halloween Episode|"Treehouse of Horror"]] episode, Homer obtains a monkey's paw. Maggie makes the first wish and a limo pulls up. Homer starts to celebrate as the driver comes to the door. He gives her a new pacifier and then drives off.
** After the other wishes backfire, Homer wishes for a turkey sandwich and specifically forbids any unpleasant supernatural surprises. The wish ''still'' backfires ''[[What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?|because the turkey is a little dry.]]''
* Invoked and lampshaded in ''[[The Fairly
== [[Real Life]] ==
* Alexander the Great, at one point visited Corinth. While there he offered, according to the story, a particular Philosopher (Diogenes) anything he wanted and, being emperor of just about everything at the time, he could have granted it. Diogenes only looked up, slightly irritated, and asked him to step aside, because he was blocking the sun.
* Three soldiers of [[Napoleon Bonaparte]] - a German, a Pole and a Jew - have fought well in battle, and he decides to grant each of them a wish.
{{quote|
'''Napoleon:''' "You will get it rebuilt."
'''Pole:''' "My motherland is under the thumb of other nations."
'''Napoleon:''' "You will get it liberated."
'''[[Genre Savvy|Jew]]:''' "I like marinated herrings so much. Could I get a few of them?"
Napoleon is surprised, but promises him the herrings. Later, the Jew explains: "I don't think you'll get your brewery back, or your free Poland. But my herrings - I may actually get them..." }}
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Index of Exact Trope Titles]]
▲[[Category:Example As a Thesis]]
[[Category:Rule of Funny]]
[[Category:Magic and Powers]]
[[Category:
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